


New Correspondence

by msmarycrawley



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Dialogue Heavy, F/F, Female Friendship, Femslash, Grief/Mourning, Heavy Angst, Joyce loves Hop, Karen loves Joyce, Late Night Conversations, POV Female Character, Phone Calls & Telephones, Rare Pairings, Repressed Memories, Unrequited Love, it's sad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-07-25 03:47:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20019430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/msmarycrawley/pseuds/msmarycrawley
Summary: After Bob's death, Joyce takes to talking to Karen on the phone. Karen starts to think it might mean something more.





	1. Call 1

**Author's Note:**

> If you follow me on Twitter, I've been saying I wanted to post a Joyren fic for a while. Here it is! I'm not sure how many chapters it'll turn out to be yet, maybe 10. There's really not much out there for this pairing. Enjoy :)

"MICHAEL! Pick up after yourself!" Karen was tired, even though she woke up late. Her son was, as always, was being impossible. Already halfway down the stairs to his lair, he shot her an annoyed look and put his dinner plate in the dishwasher. _How hard is that to do?_ Every time Will came over, he would eat everything on his plate, smile and thank her for the meal, and wait until everyone else was done eating to leave and clear his place. That boy was raised right, and he was downstairs with the rest of Mike's friends-the usual crowd. 

She would never understand what was so special about that basement. 

Karen glanced over at her husband, who was eternally fiddling with the TV. And then at the clock, which read 7:50. She sighed deeply, realizing she'd have to break up the party soon. The few hours after dinner and before bed were simultaneously the best and worst part of her day. Karen could finally be alone with her thoughts, but she never liked what she was thinking. She decided to give the kids ten more minutes before she had to play bad cop and meandered her way over to the couch. As if on cue, the phone rang just as she was sitting down. Knowing that it was pointless to go back and forth with Ted about it, she got up to answer it. 

Karen reached the phone just before the last ring. "Hello?"

"Hi, Karen." _Oh. Joyce._

Karen eyed a stain on the carpet while she spoke. "Joyce! Will's still here." She was calling more frequently than she usually did, and who could blame her after what happened last year? Karen was actually surprised she hadn't reached her sooner. "I know," came her reply. Neither of the women spoke for a few seconds. Karen leaned against the wall and rubbed her eyes, noticing her vision was going a little blurry from staring at the carpet. This stain was really beginning to annoy her. She prided herself on maintaining as clean of a household as she could, and there it was just sitting there right in front of her. She hated the audacity of it.

_I think I'll have to use baking soda for that one._

"What?" Karen heard Joyce's voice and straightened up, suddenly remembering the feeling of the phone in her hand. "What?", she repeated back to her. 

"You just said 'I'll have to use baking soda for that one.'"

"Oh..." _Did I say that out loud? Jesus. I need sleep._ "Sorry, I was just thinking out loud."

"It's ok. I do that too. Bad stain?" The tone of Joyce's voice was lighter, like she had a weight removed from her back. Though what she had to say that seemed so serious remained a mystery. 

"Yup." Karen chewed the inside of her cheek, twirling the phone cord in her hand. "You were saying..."

"Oh, only that I know that Will is still there."

"I'm letting the boys have a few more minutes and sending them home."

"Okay. Thanks."

Karen was only half paying attention to the conversation, trying to focus on anything else in the room that wasn't that fucking stain. She was getting antsy- like she needed to clean that thing RIGHT NOW, or she would never do it. 

There was silence on the other end. Joyce stopped talking again.

"Is there something-"  
"I actually-"

Both women spoke at once. Karen let Joyce start over. She heard her clear her throat.

"..Can we talk about something else? Not involving the boys?" _What?_

This WAS interesting. Suddenly all thoughts of the stain were banished from Karen's head for the time being. They never talked about anything other than the kids, Joyce never expressed any desire to. 

She would have to choose her next words carefully. This could be serious, she didn't want to scare her off.

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"Like... I don't know. I just felt like I wanted to talk to somebody normal."

Karen wasn't sure if that was meant to be a compliment or not, but she rolled with it anyway. "...You're not normal?" 

She was just being polite. Joyce Byers was the most unusual woman she had ever met. One of these days, she would ask her about those Christmas lights. 

"No," She heard her sigh over the line. "I mean, yes. In some ways, but not in others. My life isn't normal."  
That Karen could agree with. She was the only person she knew that was divorced, maybe in the whole town. Raising two kids on her own couldn't be an easy feat. 

She shifted from one foot to the other. "I'm not sure anybody's life is completely normal."

"You're right. Of course, you're right. " Joyce replied definitively. 

"Is everything okay, Joyce?" 

She couldn't avoid asking it. The fact that she was confiding in her when they had only ever been acquaintances at best pointed to "no". This was probably all about Bob. She must be grieving and wanted to talk to somebody neutral about it. Karen wasn't sure how he died, she only knew that he did and that it was a closed casket funeral. It happened six months ago, and they all would have gone to the service to support Joyce if it wasn't so private. Oddly enough, she heard Jim showed up-Jim, not Hop or Hopper. Occasionally Chief Hopper when it called for it. Nobody else ever called him Jim. He never played by the rules, and now he was the one enforcing them? _Please._ Karen was never a fan, and it went all the way back to high school. She used to say, "hi Jiiiim", and give him her best bratty grin every time she saw him, which mercifully wasn't often. He always looked so angry, like he would punch her right in the face if he could. She'd like to see him try. 

If she was being honest with herself, Karen didn't like Bob much either. Everybody was surprised when he and Joyce got together. She knew it was her own insecurities talking, but he seemed to act like he was better than the rest of them. He was always playing the moral police and taking the high ground, he was always so _good_, and it was annoying. But he was a really good guy, and he probably died saving somebody's life, and they want to protect their identity. Every time she saw Joyce since, she was a little worse for wear. She took it hard. Sometimes Karen wondered what she would do if Ted died. She'd probably be sad, but not sad enough, and that would be what made her sad. 

"Yeah," Joyce said, interrupting her thoughts. "I mean, sort of. What did you do today?"

"Oh," she said, a little taken aback by the question. She could see that they wouldn't be talking about Bob tonight. But that had to be at least PART of why she was calling. "I just went to the store to pick up a few things and took Holly to the playground. And I found a stain." 

Joyce laughed.  
"I wish I had just a stain to clean."

"Really? Then come on over and you can help me clean this!" She made her laugh again. Maybe if she talked to her in person, she would be able to help her better. 

Karen looked at her husband, still playing with the TV, completely oblivious to what was going on with her. She could hear the low murmuring sounds of the kids talking downstairs. Both women were quiet for a few minutes. She wasn't going to get anything more out of Joyce tonight. 

"I'll send Will home now," she broke the silence.

"That'd be good. And thanks, Karen."

Karen's eyes found the stain again. "Any time. I mean it."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Both women hung up.


	2. Call 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I'm sorry for...before." "No, don't apologize, Joyce. I get it." 
> 
> Karen is a little bit more prepared for when Joyce calls a second time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really have to make myself a writing schedule at this point, I always update things so late fdsajfdsalk hopefully nobody lost interest

It was a few days before Karen heard from Joyce again. Everything in her life had continued the same as it always had: she made breakfast, lunch, and dinner, raised her kids, did everything around the house, and was constantly bored out of her mind. And then the phone rang with Joyce on the end of it for the second time, and things were finally different.

Somehow, she knew it was her. "I'll get it," Karen said at nobody in particular. Ted wasn't home yet, he was working late. She carefully closed the oven door with her foot while balancing Holly on her hip, hoisting her up into her arm as she walked over to the phone. Miraculously, Will wasn't here tonight. None of Mike's friends were, and her son was in his room. Karen picked up the phone, already mentally rehearsing what she should say to Joyce. 

"Hey, Karen," she heard a familiar voice say.

"Hi, Joyce." Holly was getting fussy, so Karen put her down and leaned against the wall. "How are you?"

"I'm okay." Joyce was not okay and they both knew it. She paused briefly before continuing. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for...before. The other night. I don't know what came over me."

"No, don't apologize, Joyce. I get it." 

"The thing is you don't... you don't get all of it." Karen heard her sigh. 

"Maybe not." _Because you're not telling me._ "...But I get feeling like you have to talk to somebody." Somebody "normal", as she had called her.

"Thank you for that. The thing is, I don't know what to say. I just-"

"How was your day today?" Karen asked the way Joyce had the first time, trying to keep things light. Since Joyce wasn't sure the direction she wanted this conversation to go in, she decided it was best for her to take control, at least at first.

"Oh," Joyce replied, slightly startled. "It was fine. I got some snacks for the boys down at that place by Oak Street. They've been so good lately."

Karen nodded. She knew the convenience store she was talking about, and it wasn't exactly cheap. She was a little bit surprised Joyce shopped there rather than Melvald's, although she knew their selection was limited. 

As if she was reading her mind, Joyce said, "I know, it's sacrilege, and I normally wouldn't do it. But Melvald's is apparently not keeping up with the times. Have you seen those _Fruit Roll-Ups_? That's what Will wanted. He wouldn't outright say, of course, but I knew."

Despite their awkward first conversation, Karen was now seeing that Joyce wanted to pretend that everything was fine, and far be it for her to attempt to drudge up her past over the phone. Whether this was for her own benefit or Karen's was anybody's guess. But she would go crazy wondering what was right beneath the surface. She didn't want to talk about the boys, and here she was, talking about them. Granted, it was a little hard for them to have an in-depth discussion about anything else-they had nothing in common. 

Karen suddenly realized that she hadn't replied to her yet. She was remembering that she had also talked about going to the store when Joyce asked her how her day was. It seemed to her like so much of being a mother was just buying things. She wondered how Joyce managed sometimes. She cleared her throat, eyeing Holly playing on the rug. 

"I've heard of those." 

"Yeah," Joyce was sounding more confident now, fully enforcing her farce of normalcy. "I don't usually allow sweets around the house, but Will and Jonathan have both been keeping up with their schoolwork so well, they haven't been complaining about anything. I've been working longer hours."

If she truly wasn't going to get anywhere, Karen decided to play along. "Mike really likes those cheese balls you get in a jar. Have you seen those? They're so disgusting and make such a mess. He nags me all the time about buying them and I can only bring myself to do it once in a blue moon." 

Joyce laughed. "Yes, I know exactly what you're talking about. Bob used to..." her voice trailed off. Karen gripped the phone tighter. The surface was finally cracking.

"Bob used to what?" Karen asked softly. "Did he like those too?"

There was a long pause, and she heard Joyce take a shaky breath in. "He did. I'm sorry, I can't."

"It may be easier if you talk about him a little bit. Just say one thing." Karen didn't want to push her luck, but she genuinely wanted to help. She understood that she was grieving, and Joyce was by all accounts a very private person, especially after what happened last year. Karen knew almost nothing about her. The fact that she called her about something personal in the first place was a wonder. 

"One thing?"

"Only if you want to." Karen ran her finger along the side of the phone, waiting. 

"Well...He- he was _funny._ People don't realize how funny he was. He would throw those things in the air and try and catch them in his mouth. 8 times out of 10 he would miss, but I loved watching him try. He always had stupid jokes and puns up his sleeve." 

Karen was charmed, despite herself. She liked the one thing Joyce picked out. "He sounds like he was great with kids."

"He was," Joyce said, and she could hear the smile in her voice. "He really was."

As if on cue, Mike clambered loudly down the stairs. "Mom, is dinner ready?" _Shit._ She was so focused on her conversation that she left the casserole out for too long and it was probably cool by now. She turned her head to face him. "I just have to heat it back up. And dad still isn't home yet, so we might be eating later tonight. Okay? Will you keep your sister company?" He groaned predictably and walked over to the rug, sitting next to Holly. She was Karen's most well-behaved child and she treasured that. 

"I think I should make dinner too," Joyce said, sounding a little rushed. 

"Oh." Karen didn't want her to hang up yet, even though it made sense that they end their conversation here. "Okay, well-"

"Thank you, Karen." She interrupted. "I didn't know if I could-if I should have talked to you about more than we usually do. I'm glad that I can."

Karen was taken aback by the strength in her words. 

"Well, like I said, any time." And she meant it, too.

Joyce hung up and she heard the phone click. Karen waited a few moments, listening to the silence.


End file.
